One way to look at Superman, and superheroes in general, is as a funhouse mirror exaggeration of ordinary human life. Certain stories make that especially clear.
One fact of human life is that there’s no escape from the ravages of aging, except the unpalatable one of an early death.
In old age, we human beings have to face the fact that our powers will fail, and we will lose many of the people and things we love, one by one.
Even Superman is made to face that fact in writer Otto Binder and artist Curt Swan’s story Superman’s Old Age! (Action Comics 270, Nov. 1960).
Accidentally exceeding the speed of light, Superman finds himself decades in the future.
“People’s clothing, the buildings … they’re all changed! Everything is different except me!”
But he’s wrong. Catching his reflection in a window, Superman is shocked to see that he’s now an elderly man.
And more shocks are coming. Attempting to move a stalled “rocketmobile” that has blocked traffic, Superman finds his super-strength gone.
“Give up, old man!” says the contemptuous driver. “Here comes someone who can help me.”
Superwoman arrives to move the vehicle, treating Superman dismissively as if he’s suffering from senile dementia and is confused about his faded powers.
Luckily for Superman, the entire adventure is a dream.
“This story also fits in with the ‘rejection’ motif of many 1960 Superman family stories,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost.
Then, as now, youth-obsessed American society tended not to honor old people, but to warehouse and ignore them. And this story unflinchingly reflects that.
Reading this issue as a child, I found it impossible to believe that the world could ever forget a figure as famous as Superman. But my view has changed. I’ve learned that the most famous people can be forgotten in a shockingly short time.
For example, ask anyone born since 2000 who “Cary Grant” was, and you’ll be met with a blank stare.
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